Shipping Zones Settings

Overview

Shipping zones let you set specific geographic areas where you will ship product. You use these zones to determine where you ship and the cost for shipping.  The information you set here is used  to match up what the customer has entered during checkout, to the shipping methods you have defined.  

Requirements

The following prerequisites will be necessary to accomplish the goals of this article:

• Have access to your Hotcakes store administration
• Familiarity with shipping methods
• Understanding of which countries/regions you wish to send products to

Getting Started

You should first have a plan to know where in the world you are willing to send product to.

Shipping Zones Settings

You set these zones in the Admin section. Click the Shipping Zones link in the Admin drop down menu.

A list of currently configured shipping zones is shown. In the image below, you'll see the shipping zones that most stores start with.  You can add a new zone by typing a name and then clicking Add Zone.  You can also delete or edit existing shipping zones using the icons on the right side of each shipping zone.

When you create a new zone, it will be added to the list.  From there, you can edit any of the existing zones to define which countries and regions are assigned to that zone.  

This page lets you add a new zone or delete a currently configured zone. Select a country and a region from the drop down under “Areas in This Zone” and click Add Area to add a geographic location to the zone. You can also type a new name into the Zone Name text box. This value will only be seen by you and others in the administration area.

The countries and regions are populated and managed from the Countries settings page in the Settings menu.

The Save Changes button will only save the name of the shipping zone.  Adding/removing any areas will be saved instantly.  

If you add a country and don't specify a region, like shown below, then all regions in that country will be considered to be part of that shipping zone.

If you wish to support some, but not all regions for a specific country, then you'll need to add an area for each of the supported regions.